BILL ANALYSIS
AB 871
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Date of Hearing: May 6, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 871 (Nestande) - As Amended: April 29, 2009
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:6-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill requires a school district that did not receive Year
Round School (YRS) program funding in the 2007-08 fiscal year
(the Menifee Union School District in Riverside County) to be
eligible for this funding in the 2008-09 FY only, as specified.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to not
approve new YRS grants based on applications received on or
after August 1, 2008.
2)Requires a school district to be eligible for 50% of YRS
funding it requested for the 2008-09 FY, if it applied on or
before July 31, 2008.
3)Exempts a school district that requests YRS funding in the
2008-09 FY from losing eligibility for state school
construction bond funds.
4)Deems funding received by a school district to be YRS program
funding for the 2008-09 FY, irrespective of the FY the
district received it.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)GF/98 reallocation of $2 million in YRS funding to comply with
the requirements of this measure. In the 2007-08 FY, four
school districts received funding under this program and under
this bill each of these districts' grant amounts would be
prorated down to accommodate the reallocation of $4.1 million
to the one school district that is eligible under this
AB 871
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measure.
2)The 2009 Budget Act allocated $46.6 million for the YRS
program, which includes a total reduction of 19.8% from the
2008 Budget Act appropriation. Of this reduction, 15.4% was
reduced from the 2008 Budget Act allocation and carried
forward to the 2009-10 FY. In addition, the 2009 Budget Act
reduces this program by another 4.4%.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . The YRS program was established to provide
additional funding to school districts forced to establish
year-round or multi-track schools due to severe overcrowding.
For example, a multi-track school may need additional teachers
or janitorial staff to operate on a year-round calendar.
SB 658 (Romero), Chapter 271, Statutes of 2008, phased-out the
YRS program over a four-year period (with the grant amounts
declining by 20% per year until it ends in 2012-13). Chapter
271 further required the funding for the YRS program to be
transferred on an annual incremental basis to the Charter
School Facilities (CSF) program until the entire YRS program
sunsets in 2013.
Chapter 271 further prohibited the SPI from approving new
grant awards for the YRS program beginning in the 2008-09 FY.
The Menifee Union School District (MUSD) applied to SDE in
July 2008 for YRS program funding. MUSD's requested $4.1
million in YRS funding. According to SDE, no other
applications have been received for this program.
According to the Riverside County Superintendent of Schools,
MUSD "is the only district in the state to be caught in this
eleventh hour change repealing the program after their
application. Menifee is not asking to continue in the program
beyond the current year or even to be afforded the same
gradual phase-down provided to the other districts in the
program. They are asking for only half of the funding they
were eligible for and to be provided the funding for one year
only. The district wants to avoid a critical budget shortfall
inadvertently caused by late legislative action to
retroactively limit a state funding source after the district
had met state deadlines for budget adoption."
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This bill grants eligibility for YRS program funds, for the
2008-09 FY only, to school districts who applied prior to
August 1, 2008. The measure further specifies that the
eligible school districts receive only 50% of the funding it
requested; therefore, MUSD would receive approximately $2
million GF/98.
1)MUSD , located in Riverside County, enrolls approximately 9,181
pupils in 10 schools. The school district's total GF revenue
is $62.5 million in the 2007-08 FY.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081